Boulder comes in a close second in the running for the least religious city in the United States, according to a new Gallup poll.

Just 17.3 percent of the residents of that liberal city are classified as "very religious" — 0.1 percent more than Burlington, Vt. About 61 percent of Boulder residents polled are "not religious."

The Gallup Organization called more than 240,000 people across 189 U.S. metro areas to look at the nation's religious diversity.

In the most religious metro area — Provo-Orem, Utah — 77 percent of those polled qualify as "very religious." That's 59.7 percentage points higher than Boulder.

Overall, 40 percent of Americans are very religious, based on them saying that religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. Thirty-one percent were nonreligious, saying religion did not play an important part in their lives. The remaining 29 percent were moderately religious, saying either that religion is important but they do not attend services or that religion is not important but they still attend services.

According to the poll, most of the nation's most religious cities are in the South, with Jackson, Miss., and Montgomery, Ala., at 64 percent "very religious."

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Even the most religious metro area in Colorado, Greeley, trails the national rate when it comes to the number of very religious residents. A bit more than 36 percent of that city's residents qualify as very religious.

Colorado Springs falls near the middle of the list with about 35 percent of residents being very religious. But 39.3 percent of the residents of that city, known for its conservative politics, are "not religious."

Denver ranks 155 out of the 189 metro areas. Nearly 32 percent of residents are very religious. As in Colorado Springs, the "not religious" group is larger, by about 9 percentage points.

Loveland and Fort Collins have a bigger gap — more than a 20 percentage-point difference — between very religious (about 27 percent) and not religious (about 47 percent).

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